Tigers and Tamarind and other things...

• Taking a cue from MIM here are some bullet points in no specific order... "Puli" or tamarind - a key ingredient to sambhar, decided to make itself scare from my pantry one fine day. It must be noted that would be the day when we have guests coming over who are eagerly anticipating "othentic" South Indian cooking. My niece finds it extremely amusing that the word "puli" also means tiger. (OK...OK... there is a variation of pronunciation but let's not get into that with a 4 year old). So I had to rush to the Grocery - and found a new brand - "Rajini". I can tell you while the tamarind did not go and make itself into sambhar with no intervention - it certainly had a tiger-worthy quality. So far all of the brands of tamarind I have been using had been quite insipid, but in this case I can claim I finally found the "asli" puli. 

• Read the "Weight of Heaven" by Thrirty Umrigar. Very disappointing. She starts of very well but doesn't know how to end it properly. I always keep thinking why writers can't end books nicely - in a "happily ever after" way. Especially here, given the way Frank is portrayed one would not expect him to end up doing what he does - it absolutely does not gel. 

• Was watching "Land Girls". Pretty decent series. The story and plot were predictable but what I really liked was the attention to detail in the settings. They've taken the pains to create WW2 era settings.